Archive for Positivity

We’ve arrived to the final principle in our Happiness Advantage series. It’s all about social investment, i.e. investing in relationships that shelter, sustain and nurture us. Having close relationships is what gets us through the challenges of life.

Some of us are really good at opening up and sharing challenges and setbacks and then some of us like to tough it out and handle it on our own. I usually fall into the second category, how about you? The times I have opened up and discussed problems or challenges, I have always felt better and better equipped to handle the situation going forward.We talked in an earlier principle about how articulating your problem actually helps resolve the issue. It seems that putting things in words breaks it down and makes it manageable.

Most of us have probably felt overwhelmed with work projects at times. How do you handle it? If you decide to hunker down and focus on the task, ignoring co-workers, skipping lunch, breaks and any time connecting with the people around you, how does that feel? You feel isolated and out of touch with your co-workers. You may finish your project well, but then what? You’ll probably get another one and put yourself through the same routine until you spiral into perpetual overwhelm and misery.

The most successful people (according to Achor), take the exact opposite approach. When they get a huge project they don’t turn inward, they go to their support system. Instead of skipping lunch and ignoring their co-workers, they take time for small talk, short breaks and they get energized and motivated from these interactions. If your workload is heavy, most likely everyone else is experiencing it to some degree. Having a time set aside from work tasks builds resiliency and actually helps you accomplish more.

In an office setting, this works best when the manager realizes this and takes the lead in organizing and supporting his/her team. When I was in the corporate world, this included meeting for lunch or breakfast, as time and schedule allowed. My local group was on call 24/7, and things could get stressful fast for them. So our manager supported when we could get together for meals and he gladly approved the expense.

One of my current clients is a CPA firm. We’re all familiar with tax season – January-April when there’s no time off and the workload and stress levels are high. Management realizes this and they have weekly in-house catered lunches, coffee or Sonic runs and other activities to relieve stress for the team.

Happiness at work

Our relationships at work have a direct bearing on our productivity (you’re not surprised, are you?). Gallup, which has spent decades studying this, estimates U.S. companies lose $360 billion a year in productivity due to poor relationships with their supervisors. In fact…

“The strength of the bond between manager and employee is the prime predictor of both daily productivity and the length of time people stay at their jobs.”

The best leaders and companies know this and know it affects their profits. Here’s this year’s list of top 100 companies to work for – some of them aren’t huge corporations, they are smaller firms that have realized investing in their people not only helps their people flourish and keep them motivated, it helps their bottom line. Remember that $360 billion productivity number above!

I looked through quite a few Bible verses on friendship and wanted to share these two:

Oil and perfume rejoice the heart; so does the sweetness of a friend’s counsel that comes from the heart. Proverbs 27:9.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.

Achieving Principle 7 – Social Investment

In a study called, ‘Very Happy People’, researches wanted to find the characteristics of the happiest 10 percent of people among us. Was it where they lived, money or status? No – they found only one characteristic that distinguished the happiest 10 percent and that was the strength of their social connections.

To achieve happiness, according to this research, one must seek, nurture and flourish with our social connections and interactions. Some of us need more social interactions than others, but we all need it.

Conclusion

Spending the last two months writing the principle summaries has been a great benefit to me. I read the book during the summer and started underlining passages and gave a lot of thought to what Shawn Achor wrote. Then I put it down for a few months and gradually drifted away from thinking about the principles – until I decided to do this series. Now that it’s finished, I’ve been wondering if it’ll happen again, even though I’ve put in a lot of hours these two months. Then I wonder about you and if this series has made a positive effect on you and if you’ve tried any of the principles.

So we don’t forget, how about we get out a piece of card stock or just use your computer to list each principle. Next to each principle, put in your own words a definition, key word or phrase that will stay with you. I’ll put them below. This site has a condensed synopsis of each principle.

We are on Principle 6 in our Happiness Advantage journey. Mastery or even improvement in this area will likely lead to a jump in our productivity (and happiness), because we will be turning bad habits into good ones.

Achor, the author, has titled this principle cryptically – you won’t know what he means by the 20-second rule until the middle of the chapter. I won’t make you wait that long. He’s relating this principle to a discovery he made about himself. He decided to spend 21 days practicing his guitar every day. He made a chart, put it on the wall and was expecting to achieve that goal. After 21 days, he only had 4 checkmarks and was angry and embarrassed at himself for failing. He discovered that when he moved his guitar from the closet onto a stand in his living room (20 seconds closer), he achieved his goal of 21 consecutive days of practicing.

It’s human to take the path of least resistance – to keep doing things the same way, even though we know it doesn’t work and we are frustrated with ourselves. A truth Achor discovered was,

“Common Sense is Not Common Action”

In other words, we know what we need to do or not do. Some of us have a goal of exercising first thing in the morning, but when we wake up and ask ourselves if we want to get out for a walk that day or hit the gym, we say ‘no’, and go back to sleep or do something else.

Just like we know eating sugary foods, smoking cigarettes and not exercising is bad for us, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll do the ‘common sense thing’ about them.

Every morning when I get to my office, I know the important things that need to be done that day. I’ve either written it down the day before or had gone through tasks in my mind while getting ready. I also know that getting these things checked off my list before noon (or even before 10:30), gives me a big boost and makes me feel productive. Then why do I get derailed some days? I’ll decide to check my Twitter stream, LinkedIn, Google+ and yes, even Facebook. Many of my daily tasks revolve around social media tasks for clients, so I have to be there daily and keep them open. Since I’ve been doing it for several years, I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but some days I don’t get my tasks finished until mid afternoon.

Action is What We Need

Aristotle said, “To be excellent, we cannot simply think or feel excellent, we must act excellently”. Action is required to be excellent– to exercise first thing in the morning, to get our important tasks completed first at work, but why doesn’t that happen?

Inactivity is the Easiest Option

Doing nothing or going down the path of least resistance is what we do. Instead of getting up to walk, we hit snooze and sleep in. Instead of setting aside distractions and getting client work done first, I let headlines divert my attention.

Achor says that we make a habit of the things we want to do and that willpower alone will not change us. He believes willpower wears out over time. I’m inclined to go along with him there. How many people do you know who stick to a diet for a long period of time and maintain their after-diet weight? How well do you stick to a self-imposed budget? Then there are those New Year’s Resolutions. Studies show that 80% of people have dropped their New Year’s Resolutions after 3 weeks in January.

How To Take Action

The key is to make the things we want to do easier to do. We want to remove the barrier to making positive changes. Let’s go back to our walking early in the morning example. Get items ready for your walk the night before, putting your clothes right by the bed and your shoes on the floor. If you go to the gym, get your bag out, or even put it in the car. Some even sleep in their gym clothes so there’s no thought or decision to make.

If you work in an office, there are so many more distractions now than before because of the internet. If your company doesn’t block the internet or certain sites, how do you keep focused? There are so many things you could do. Here are a few from this book and some from Stever Robbins’ book, 9 Steps To Work Less and Do More, that I really like:

turn off email notifications – you can turn off the mail arrival sound and the brief view of the message (I’ve done this one!) Then check your email at certain times of the day. How many true email emergencies do you get?

if you use the internet to accomplish your work, focus on the research or information you’re retrieving. If you see something interesting, write it down, don’t go visit the site. You’ll be surprised at how many sites you don’t feel the need to go back to

for work you have to do that doesn’t require internet, shut your browser down to focus. If you have non-computer work to do, can you physically move away from your computer monitor to do it? You could turn your monitors off so you don’t see the screen.

make it easier to eat healthy foods – have them close at hand, but store your treats in the garage or a closet

watch too much TV? The author took out the remote batteries and put them in a drawer in his bedroom. Then he had books and hobbies at hand (path to least resistance), and found he’d gained back hours each evening.

I’ve always had a hard time finding the time to write my weekly blog post, although I’ve done it for 7 or 8 years now. It’s worked out for me to write on my laptop computer away from my desk and office where so many things easily distract me.

I’ve discovered that working on my laptop with only my writing software (Windows Live Writer), and a browser or notes for my article by me work best. I can usually focus the hour or so it takes to get it written.

Think about the things in your life you want to change and use the 20-second rule to make small changes and get big results. Share your story in the comments.

We’re on Principle 5 of ‘The Happiness Advantage’, called the Zorro Circle. This is, of course, is a reference to the movie, Zorro. Before Zorro became the swashbuckling hero we remember, he had fallen into drinking and despair. That’s when Don Diego meets him and starts his training by drawing a small circle on the floor and telling him “This circle will be your world, your whole life.” He had Zorro master all the swordplay moves from within the circle, then gradually expanded his circle as Zorro’s skills improved and the rest is legend.

You’re probably already drawing the correlation between Zorro and you. If in your life, your job, or your schoolwork you feel you have no control, you need to pause and focus on what’s going on in your life and take some steps to resolve the feelings of stress.

“Small stresses can build over time, then one more thing and we get emotionally hijacked”.

This has probably happened to you. Burdens have been piling up, but you tell yourself you have it handled, but then something really minor happens and you lose your temper. Emotions need an outlet or to be resolved.

Achor talks about the ‘Internal Locus of Control’ which psychologists define as people who have “The belief that their actions have a direct effect on their outcomes.” These types of people have more feelings of accomplishment, success and happiness. Since they believe their actions affect what happens to them in their job, (when something positive happens), it makes them work that much harder and they accomplish more. In a study he quotes, Achor (through the study), says that people who only think they are in control or have control experience the same positive effects. Their feelings of positivity then spreads out into a ripple effect that touches other parts of their lives. So that raises questions in my mind about all kinds of psychological things I’m not qualified to talk about!

Regaining Control

If you feel things are out of control, at work or with life, what do you do first? We go back to Don Diego training Zorro – start with a small circle or step.

Get out some paper and draw a line down the middle. Write down your stresses, overwhelms, challenges and goals. It’s most helpful to verbalize the things on your mind. Do you have a spouse, trusted friend or colleague to talk to? I have found that when I talk about a situation, verbalizing can find a partial solution, or I discover the item I’m discussing really isn’t as bad as I thought it was. This is called the ‘’Self-awareness” step in the book.

Now that you have discussed or written down your stressors, next write down or discuss the things you actually have control over and put them in the ‘under my control’ category on your paper. Once you have the list of things under your control, now you can take each item and break it down into a bite-size bit – remember to master your small circle before going on. The things out of your control should be released from your mind (hard to do, I know).

I’ve actually done this many times in my corporate life before being aware of studies and writings on this subject. There were simply many times when I had so many projects and deadlines that I had to stop, prioritize them and then put them into a schedule of when what thing would get done first. Other times I had one huge project to get done and even though it was one thing, it overwhelmed me. That’s when I divided it into manageable pieces to get it done.

Perhaps you have a cluttered desk or office, or maybe you have thousands of emails that need going through. Perhaps you’re faced with moving your parents out of their long-time home into a smaller assisted living space and you have their life-long accumulation of things to deal with. All of these are daunting and stressful. But using the techniques above, they can be accomplished.

Focus on tiny, incremental changes.

How do you handle the overwhelm that comes at you? Are you already applying some of these suggestions or have you discovered other ways to cope? Leave a comment, please.

We are going over the 4th Principle – Falling Up, from The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor. The tagline is, ‘Capitalizing on the Downs to Build Upward Momentum’.

After reading through the chapter again, I’d summarize it by saying this is about experiencing setbacks, roadblocks, failures and any kind of adversity. After taking some time to adjust and reflect, you look for the positive and find a path that takes you forward or ‘up’. I believe most of us do this, but some of us may shift our mindset faster than others to a recovery. Because if you don’t recover, the alternative is staying unhappy.

In other words, we are rewriting or reframing, in our minds, what has happened in order to grow and go forward. In times of adversity or crisis, there are 3 paths (paraphrased from the book):

The Path Up

1. Keep circling where you are and make no progress

2. Tell yourself things won’t get any better and will probably get worse.

3. Find a way to rethink your situation and resolve to grow and even succeed.

“It’s not the adversity itself, but what we do with it that determines our fate.”

Thankfully, not many of us have experienced true catastrophes, affecting us physically or economically, but we probably know someone who has. Living in Oklahoma, I’ve seen many torn up communities caused by tornados – houses that were torn off their foundations. I’ve worked cleaning up property that was tornado ravaged and it’s amazing to see a fence picket driven through a wall next to some dishes untouched by the storm. After the initial shock, communities and people bounce back, rebuilding and coming closer to their families and neighbors because they’ve gone through this tragedy. Somehow, they found something positive or motivating and they rebuilt.

May, 2011 tornado that ripped through a home

Nick Vujicic is a man who was born with no legs and no arms. He is now an inspirational speaker that shares his life story with whoever is willing to listen. He has turned his situation into a positive and can relate and motivate others to look at the glass half full. This link will take you to his Ted Talk. This is a powerful example, isn’t it?

Finding Your Path Up – Suggestions

1. Change your counterfact. I don’t know if Achor coined this word, but to define it – it’s when you invent something that explains or resolves a situation to your brain. It’s really just taking something negative and looking for something positive out of it.

2. Change your explanatory style. This is how we choose to explain past events. Most of us have probably lost a job in our past – I know I have. At first, it’s devastating and I needed time to process what and why it happened. After some time, I could see some positives and saw an opportunity to try something new. I selected a new path.

3. Define your ABCDs:

Adversity-the facts of what has happened

Belief – our reaction to the event, why we think it happened and what we think it means for the future

Consequence – do we think the result will be a spirling downward or can we find something positive to bring us back up

Disputation – it’s when we dispute or challenge our beliefs. If we believe a situation is just horrible and we’ll never recover, then we should dispute or challenge it. When the despair hits, give yourself some ‘pity party’ time, but then give yourself a talking to and tell yourself that although things may be bad now, how will you feel about it in a year, in a few months?

Achor says, ‘The human psyche is more resilient than we think”. I believe this to be true. How many times do we sympathize with someone who’s going through a tragedy and we say to ourselves, “I could never handle this”. The reality is that most of us can handle what life throws our way – what’s the alternative if we don’t? I believe some may recover faster than others – that’s where our personal beliefs and faith comes in. For me, I rely on scripture to help me though tough situations…

1 Thessalonians 5:18 – Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

James 1:2-3 – Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Can you think of a time where you overcame by using some of these techniques? Leave a comment. If you think someone could benefit from this article, use one of the sharing buttons below to easily share!

Principle Three of ‘The Happiness Advantage’, is called The Tetris Effect. I like to call it ‘Retrain Your Brain to see Things In A More Positive Way’. Achor calls this ‘The Tetris Effect’, in reference to the digital game, Tetris. I think I’ve played it a few times. He’s making a connection between people playing Tetris for hours on end and then after they quit playing and do something else, they will see common objects as pieces of the Tetris game and try to fit them in, as if they were still playing the game.

According to research, when one plays Tetris, or other games for hours on end, it can actually re-wire the brain (at least temporarily), and warp the way reality is seen – at least for a time. To get to the point of our principle for this week, what we think dictates the way we see the world around us. Logical, isn’t it.

This principle is really all about being optimistic and looking for the positive in situations. It’s the glass half full and half empty kind of thing. It’s about reframing how you think about situations to look at them in a more positive way. So instead of feeling grumpy because I’m sitting at a red light for three cycles, I should train my brain to look for a positive way to use that time.

Two quotes from this chapter made an impression on me and I’d like to share them with you:

“Optimism, it turns out, is a tremendously powerful predictor of work performance.”

Having a positive attitude at work just gives you a lift and advantage – you can draw upon it when you need a little boost to push through a sticky problem or project.

“Gratitude has proven to be a significant cause of positive outcomes.”

The author encourages us to start keeping a gratitude journal and write down a few things every day. More about this later.

People who practice having an attitude of gratitude get in the habit of looking for and at things in a more positive way. It seems these types of people will set more goals and tackle more ambitious projects than others. Makes sense because when you feel happy and positive, you’ll feel empowered.

Our companion scriptures for this week are abundant and so appropriate with this being Thanksgiving week:

Psalms 136:1 O give thanks to the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Do You Feel Lucky?

Many of us can hear Clint Eastwood saying the above line in our heads, but let’s think about it differently. Have you ever thought of yourself as being a lucky person? If there’s a contest or a chance to win something, do you ever win?

Turns out studies have been done on this too (this book is full of studies and it has footnotes to all of them). People who think they are lucky actually win more than the people who either think they’re unlucky or just don’t really think about it at all.

I used to play bunco once a month with a group of ladies and did that for a year. Each time we got together, there was an opportunity to win 1 of 4 prizes. There were 16 of us there, so a pretty good chance of winning. I never really thought too much about winning while I was a regular member. But after I started subbing for people who couldn’t make it, I’d find myself thinking as I drove there, that I felt pretty lucky and there was a really good chance I was going to win one of the prizes that night. It worked! I think for three times in a row when I subbed, I’d win one of the prizes. It was quite amazing (and fun)! Another time, I was at a conference and they were going to randomly draw some names of people who had tweeted and I remember feeling really positive and lucky and I won a really cool computer bag. Having a positive attitude can bring positive outcomes!

Start Your Tetris Effect

Here’s our practical application – concrete things we can do…

Make a list of the good things in your life – personal & work.

Write down 3 good things that happen each day (your gratitude journal we talked about above).

Write a few sentences each day about something positive that happened.

Train your brain to scan and look for the positives. If you do the above 3 things each day, you are training or retraining your brain to look for the positives. According to ‘The Tetris Effect’, after this becomes a habit, you’ll see positive things more easily and you should see a spike in your happiness too.

There is a hashtag, #ScienceOfHappiness, that you can check out either in Twitter or Facebook. Simply copy and paste the pound sign and text into Facebook, Twitter or GooglePlus and see what other people are saying and join in the conversation. Of course, leaving a comment here is always appreciated.

The second principle of Shawn Achor’s book, ‘The Happiness Advantage’ is The Fulcrum and the Lever. I think it’s more easily understood if you

The longer the lever, the more power

substitute, Change Your Mindset-Change Your Performance. Below is a visual of a fulcrum (the mind) and lever (power – the longer your lever, the more power/leverage you’ll have). The point being made is that “Our brains have the power to maximize our potential based on:

1. the length of our lever (how much potential power and possibility we believe we have, and

2. the position of our fulcrum – the mindset with which we generate the power to change.”

You’ve heard of the adage, ‘What the mind can believe, the body can achieve’. Many of us have heard of the “Placebo Effect”—where people are given a sugar pill and told this will alleviate some problem they have. The experts have been surprised at the number of people who say they had been ‘cured’ of whatever had been bothering them when they were given a placebo (the book quoted a rate of 55-60% of placebos being as effective as medicine). A change in the people’s mindset was enough to make the negative symptom disappear.

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you might remember when Ron Weasley was about to play in his first Quidditch game. He was nervous to the point of not being able to play. Harry had in his possession, a powerful potion that enabled magical results. He pretended to give a dose to Ron and Ron took it and believed he was one pumped-up Quidditch player and played an outstanding game. It wasn’t until afterwards that Harry showed Ron he still had the magical potion.

There was an example in the book about a group of hotel maids being told that as they cleaned and tidied up hotel rooms, the walking, cleaning, lifting, etc. they were doing could really be looked upon as exercise and their jobs probably had the added benefit where they would lose weight. The group that was told this actually did lose weight and the other group who knew nothing about it, didn’t. The mind is so powerful.

Having confidence in yourself and the ability to instill confidence (in our children, our spouse, in our staff, in a volunteer group), is so powerful and useful. Consider this quote from the book:

Belief in your own ability is a stronger predictor of job performance than actual level of skill

Changing our Mindset

So, what’s in this for me – how can I use and benefit from this principle? First, do you believe what Achor has written? Of course, he’s not the first one to put this philosophy to paper. There are many authors, speakers and coaches out there who talk about confidence, mindset and the results you can experience. I must admit, it’s taken me years to change my mindset to believe this and to take the time to read a book like this, much less spend this much time writing about it. I need to give a lot of credit to my husband because he’s been a reader and believer for quite some time and I’ve been more of a scoffer.

So – on to some practical application…

1. Adjust, or change the way you think about a particular circumstance. We all have things we dislike to do. Maybe there’s a repetitive task at work you dislike. I really don’t care for filing, but my desk and office really look spiffy when it’s done. So instead of focusing on the actual doing of the task, I should focus on how I’ll feel when it’s done. Maybe you’re stuck in traffic or behind someone really slow – instead of feeling angry, choose to feel indifferent or even cheerful – don’t let your whole day be affected by this – rise above it!

2. Rewrite your situation into something more positive. Maybe you need to do this with your job or your attitude. Is your job

A job (probably won’t get much satisfaction if you look at it like this).

A career (are you looking to get ahead, get power, get promoted?).

A calling (look at what you do with different eyes—and find meaning in what you’re doing).

I am inspired by my husband who has done this with whatever work he’s done. He used to install flooring and he installed each one in the best he could and thought of his work as craftsmanship and even artistry (which it was). He knew how expensive flooring material was and how people saved up to get a floor and he was going to make it a great experience for them.

3. Surround yourself with positive people and surround yourself with the kind of people you want to be. I like these scriptures when thinking about this:

Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Proverbs 22:24-25 Don’t hang out with angry people; don’t keep company with hotheads. Bad temper is contagious— don’t get infected.

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Does feeling happy produce success or does success produce happiness? Achor, in his book, The Happiness Advantage’, is a big proponent of the former, and it makes sense to me. If you start your day with a positive or happy baseline, aren’t you more productive, positive and grateful? If there are bumps in the road, they can be handled from a position of strength because your mindset is one of positivity and you’ve built up reserves to get you through.

“Happiness causes success and achievement”

Happiness is difficult to define because the definition is different for each of us. For example, happiness to me is finishing a project well, getting everything on my to-do list completed or training my dog to do or not do a certain behavior. Happiness for you will be what’s important to you. If I achieve all the things mentioned above, then I can and most likely will build on that to achieve even more goals and achieving our goals is success – right?

We’ve all heard the adages, ‘keep your nose to the grindstone’, ‘I’ll be happy when I…’, ‘work hard and you’ll be a success’. These sayings are telling us we won’t be happy until we reach some specific goal. So if it takes 10 or even 2 years to advance your career or consider yourself a success, are you not supposed to be happy along the way?

My mom said to me many times to ‘work hard’. That is what that ‘greatest’ generation knew. I considered the advice to be wise and it helped me. I can still work hard from a place of being joyful about my work-not as being a grind or a duty. [Side note here – observing some from the millennial generation, it seems like this group is very ‘into’ being happy and fulfilled with their work, which is great. What I’ve also seen, which is a bit disturbing, is their unwillingness to take a job that is ‘beneath’ them or not to their liking, even though they may have bills and responsibilities that are being neglected because they aren’t ‘fulfilled’. Taking a job in order to fulfill your responsibilities should bring satisfaction that you can support yourself while realizing it’s a temporary thing. I also believe that looking back at these types of jobs we’ve had builds a lot of character and we may even recall those jobs with fondness down the road. (I know I have.) Side note is over!].

“When we are happy—when our mindset and mood are positive—we are smarter, more motivated and thus more successful.”

So how do we make ourselves happy and raise our happiness baseline? As I said in last week’s introduction, I need concrete steps to take, so here are 7 concrete things (from the book), we can do (additional comments from me):

Meditate – even 5 minutes a day can help. There are lots of scriptures in Psalms on meditating – Psalms 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Start your day with scripture. I also like Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.

Look forward to something. Love this one – I’m not thinking about big things either…it’s the little things!

Do conscious acts of kindness. Get your mind off yourself and serve others. This will probably put in perspective the things happening with you.

Exercise – we all need it, get out and walk every day.

Spend money – but not on stuff, spend it on time with a friend, spouse an activity.

Perform a signature strength via http://survey.org. (this site is being relaunched – so not online now). You could also check out strengthsfinder.com – an online survey (paid) that assesses your strengths.

Fun Leads To Bottom-Line Results

Many Silicon Valley companies have perks that include bringing your dog to work, free food, workout facilities, games. They’ve realized that when employees are happy, they are more creative and produce more work AND they stay at work longer! These practices are being implemented around the country here and there. Studies have shown that people want to feel valued and recognized in their jobs – they want to feel like they are really contributing something. Smart employers regularly recognize their employees in front of their peers. Salary and money is important, but getting positive reinforcement and recognition makes the employee want to do even more and better.

Studies have shown (this is from the book), that “When positive emotions flood our brains with dopamine and serotonin, chemicals that not only make us feel good, but dial up the learning centers of our brains to higher levels. They help us organize new information, keep that information in the brain longer and retrieve it faster later on…we think more quickly and creatively…invent new ways of doing something”.

Are you in a position of influence or management? Most of us probably think we’re not, but if you’re a parent, you have great influence on your children (whether it seems like it or not). Even if that title isn’t after your name, think of all the interactions you have on a daily basis and the opportunities to build others up.

The book has many real-life examples and I keep remembering one where Achor relates the story of a boss going to his employee shortly before he’s going to present to a client and saying words to the effect – “this account is critical, don’t mess it up”. I’m sure he meant it as encouragement, but what do you think went through the guy’s mind? Achor suggests thinking about very positive past experiences or having an upbeat conversation with someone right before going into the room is what should be done. Having a positive experience right before you’re in the spotlight gives you a positive emotional boost.

So do something positive – something that broadens your happiness baseline – before talking to a group, a prospective client, an interview. Your frame of mind will be primed to handle whatever may come up much better.

What are some happiness tips you can pass along that give your day a boost. Leave a comment!

Happiness – it’s something we seek, work and pray for. We want to be happy in our personal lives, be happy and successful in our business lives, but how do we get there?

For the next 7-8 weeks, we’re going to dive into that subject using Shawn Achor’s book, ‘The Happiness Advantage’, written in 2010. He’s a student, teacher and believer of positive psychology. You can read more about him here. I heard about this book from my friend, Cory Miller. He read it and was so impressed, he bought it for his entire staff, so I just had to get a copy and read it for myself. I read a lot of business books – this one focuses on changing your mindset and looking at situations from a positive perspective instead of negative. A quote from the beginning of the book –

“Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it is the realization that we can.”

A freedom we all have is the power of our thoughts. We can choose to begin our day thinking negatively about what will probably go wrong or how we will mess something up, or we can start to put positive thoughts in our heads, making small changes that over time, will bring about a positive change in our lives. In addition to using the 7 principles in his book, for each principle, I’m going to find a scripture or two to go along with his points because I can see faith in Achor’s words (he is the son of a preacher), they just aren’t there in print.

I consider myself a realist and so I like to think of myself as logical—most of the time! So I’m not much for people writing about being positive without putting some solid steps behind it. So I was glad when I found this in his introduction:

“The Happiness Advantage starts at a different place. It asks us to be realistic about the present while maximizing our potential for the future. It is about learning how to cultivate the mindset and behaviors that have been empirically proven to fuel greater success and fulfillment. It is a work ethic.”

I’m no psychologist or researcher, but I am someone who has gone through the book several times and even made notes and I thought what I came up with may perhaps be helpful to some of my readers. So I hope you’ll accompany me the next couple of months while we look at the power of positivity (I first saw this word in his book-nice) and the power of faith and see what we can learn together.